News
Cloned predecessor to Dolly the sheep goes on permanent show at museum
A cloned sheep that helped pave the way for the creation of Dolly the sheep has gone on show at a rural life museum. Morag and her identical twin Megan were cloned from the same embryo and were the first mammals to be successfully cloned from differentiated cells. Their births in June 1995 at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh were hailed as a technical breakthrough and made the birth of Dolly the sheep the following year possible.
Source: STV News
Hub to aid precision breeding of future farm animals
Edinburgh experts will receive almost £5 million to establish a new hub at the University’s Roslin Institute, based at the Easter Bush campus, to drive advances in engineering biology – a major innovation focus for the UK Government.
The hub will focus on research to identify and study small changes to DNA in animals to advance sustainable agriculture and control diseases.
Gene-edited pigs approved for US market
Pigs produced to be resistant to one of the world’s most costly livestock diseases, using technology developed by the Roslin Institute, have been approved for sale to US consumers.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a gene-editing technology that makes pigs resistant to Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) for the US food supply chain.
TRICAPITAL Angels leads £2.1 million investment into Scottish insect genetics firm Beta Bugs
Pioneering Scottish business Beta Bugs has secured a multimillion-pound investment as it looks to become a global leader in insect genetics.
TRICAPITAL Angels led a £1.7 million investment into the business in 2023 – and has now followed up with a fresh £2.1 million cash injection alongside Scottish Enterprise.